Blemished
by Tobu Ishi
Summary: Sasuke sits at his window, brooding over the ominous mark that curses his skin...but not all is as it seems. (rated for a bit of language)


**Blemished**

A Naruto Fanfiction by Tobu Ishi

* * *

"It's getting bigger," he whispered, running his fingers lightly over the mark on his skin. He'd given up trying to twist around and see it by now...and besides, by now he could feel it easily.

This curse that had risen from his flesh...

His dark eyes flickered, as a tiny sound caught his ear, and he whirled, his hand going to the kunai pouch at his side—

In the doorway, a flower-bright figure dropped reflexively into a fighting stance, hands coming up to defend.

"Sasuke-kun!" she cried, and he relaxed, fractionally, reholstering the kunai with a short, sharp movement. "It's just me," she continued, taking a step into the room. "Calm down..."

"What are you doing here?" he asked sharply, reaching for the shirt he'd discarded over the back of a chair. Sakura's eyes were too quick for that, and her mind too suspicious; his hands hadn't closed fully around the soft blue fabric before her gaze darted to his shoulder.

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered, wanting to touch his hand, to come up with some solution to his misery. "It's growing, isn't it?"

He ignored her, pulling the shirt over his head to hide his expression under the pretense of reclaiming his decency. However, the process of dressing could only be feasibly stalled out for so long, and the stubborn look settling on Sakura's face was unmistakable. Short of a kunai to the vitals, nothing was going to make her leave.

"Answer my question first," he said, guardedly, after an awkward moment of silently clashing wills.

Sakura shrugged. "Kakashi-sensei wondered why you weren't at practice. You've never missed before without giving a reason. He and Naruto sent me ahead in case you were in trouble—Naruto needed to brush up on chakra-assisted breakfalls."

"Yeah, he always lands on his head, the little idiot," Sasuke muttered, going for the change in subject with the same swiftness he would apply to an opening in battle.

"You can still see it, you know." Sakura was not deterred. "Your collar's too open."

"You make a habit of critiquing my clothes?" he said, dryly.

"I make a habit of worrying about my friends."

"You're nosy," he snapped. "And this is my house. Get out."

"You're my friend," she shot back, "and you've got a problem. I'm not leaving."

He glowered at her, but it was her turn to ignore him, walking past him to hop up for a seat on the kitchen table, grabbing a chair to use as a footstool. "Have you asked Kakashi-sensei about it?" she asked, propping her feet comfortably on the chair back.

"What else would he know that we haven't tried?" Sasuke grumbled.

She shrugged. "Beats me. I just thought, since he's tried once already—"

Sasuke sighed and waved a hand at her in a signal to shut up. "All right, look. I asked him again yesterday and..."

"And what?"

He slumped into a chair. "He says I should wait and see if it'll go away."

A smile quirked at the corners of her mouth. "Sounds like him all right."

"No kidding." Sasuke frowned. "But it doesn't solve my problem."

They lapsed into silence for another long moment, mulling over their thoughts. Then, Sakura clapped her hands together and slid off the table, vaulting over the chair to stand next to him.

"Let me see it."

He flinched away as she reached for his collar. "Don't!" he cried, and immediately wished he could grab the childish yelp and shove it back down his throat. "Don't touch it," he continued, a bit more calmly. "I don't think you—"

"Oh, don't be such a baby," she scolded, slapping his hands away. He caught her wrists in a flash of lightning-quick movement, and she narrowed her eyes at him. "Stop acting like an idiot," she said. "Just let me have a look. I won't touch it, I promise."

Slowly, he released his grip on her wrists, and she sighed with relief.

"You've got a wicked grip, Sasuke-kun," she teased lightly, reaching for his collar again. He forced himself to stay still as she folded it gently back, exposing his neck. She sucked in a breath as she saw it, wincing in sympathy.

"Looks bad?" he asked, not sure he wanted to know.

Sakura sighed. "After what Kakashi-sensei did to it, I'm not surprised it looks so...irritated," she said, trying to be reassuring. "It might just be that, you know."

"No, it's not just Kakashi," he admitted with a grimace. "It's getting bigger. I can tell." He rubbed a weary hand across his eyes. "I don't know how to stop it. I don't know what to do..."

Her sea-green eyes were troubled. "Sasuke-kun...do you think something like this'll ever happen to me?"

"It's not exactly something you can control," he said quietly. "Once it does, you just have to deal with it."

Her fingers released his collar, wavered in the air, and came to rest gently on his shoulder. He let them remain there, not meeting her eyes.

"Sasuke-kun..." she whispered.

The outside door slammed, and she jerked her hand away as if she'd been burned. A moment later, voices echoed through the room. Sasuke grabbed her sleeve, his eyes burning into hers.

"Don't tell Naruto," he whispered. "You know he'll just be a moron about it."

She nodded. "I know..."

"Sasuke!" came an almost-jovial shout, as a lanky man with an explosion of grey hair ducked through the doorway, a bit too short for his impressive height. "We missed you at practice. You'd better have an excellent excuse ready!"

"As if you ever have a good excuse," fumed the stocky blond boy who followed at his heels. "You're _always_ late, Sensei!"

Sasuke formed a look of sullen indifference, the usual par for the course whenever he needed to hide emotions, and met his teacher's gaze. Kakashi's one visible eyebrow twitched, but he made no comment.

"Well?" he prompted instead.

"I felt sick," Sasuke mumbled, wishing he'd taken the time to think up something good instead of brooding at the window most of the afternoon.

"Do you still feel sick?" Kakashi inquired.

He nodded, hesitantly. This had the feeling of a test...

"Excellent!" the jounin said. "If you're well enough to sit up and talk to us, you're well enough to come run the obstacle course. As a ninja, there will be times when you're required to continue a mission despite sickness!"

Sasuke choked. "What? Sensei—"

"Unless of course you're too sick to walk, in which case you ought to be in bed," Kakashi continued, a steely glint in his eye. "I can assign Sakura to watch over you."

The boy's hands curled into fists. Sakura fussing over him—again—was the last thing his pride needed right now. Besides, being cosseted was high on his list of pet peeves.

"No," he said, gritting out the words. "That's all right. I'll come."

"Sasuke-kun...?" Sakura said nervously, as he stood. "Are you sure? Someone might see!"

He nodded, grimly. "It'll come out sooner or later, anyway. Might as well be sooner." Still, his hand belied his words, sliding up to self-consciously hide the mark as he edged around Naruto towards the door...

"Hey...hey!" Naruto exclaimed, his blue eyes going wide with curiosity. "What does she mean, 'see'? How come you're covering your neck like that? Huh?"

He reached for Sasuke's arm, and years of training kicked in unwanted as he whipped his hand out of the smaller boy's reach, exposing his secret for a split second—

"Whoa! What's that thing on your neck?"

Sasuke's stomach twisted. "Nothing," he muttered, trying to shoulder past the shorter boy and through the door. Naruto stepped back, blocking the way.

"Hey, hey!" he said, crossing his arms. "I wanna know what that is!"

"Er, Naruto..." Kakashi said awkwardly.

"C'mon, Sasuke, stop acting weird and just show me!"

"No!" Sasuke shoved him, hard, trying to get him out of the way.

He regretted it a moment later, when Naruto reacted the way he always did to physical aggression...by launching himself tooth and nail at whoever had dared try and push him around.

"Ack! Naruto, gerroff!"

"Naruto, stop it! Leave Sasuke-kun alone!"

"Um..."

It was Sasuke's bad luck that he'd been too busy trying to get past Naruto to bother gauging his surroundings. Naruto's sheer momentum sent him tumbling backward, and his head met the wooden back of the chair Sakura had pushed aside, with a resounding crack.

"Aughh!"

"Naruto, you idiot! Get the hell off him!"

Sasuke struggled weakly under Naruto's weight, stunned by the completely unexpected blow to the head. He noticed vaguely that the ceiling lamp was dancing pretty circles with the fire alarm...

Naruto planted a knee in his stomach, knocking his breath out for good measure, and grinned triumphantly. Any victory over Sasuke was a feather in his cap, so to speak, no matter how much dumb luck was involved. Still grinning like a Cheshire cat, he reached eagerly for the boy's collar, drawing it back—

"Holy crap!"

Kakashi and Sakura both froze with arms outstretched, about to yank the boys apart...

Sasuke cringed, turning his face away in embarrassment...

"That is some zit!"

Naruto's eyes were wide with amazement. "Wow, that has got to be, like, the mother of all pimples! When did you get that, Sasuke?"

"Shut up, Naruto!" Sakura cried, hauling him off of Sasuke by the scruff of his neck. "Show a little sympathy for once!"

"Hey, leggo my jacket!" Naruto yelped, squirming out of her grip.

Trying to gather the scraps of his dignity around him once more, Sasuke lurched to his feet and dusted himself off...

An evil grin spread ear to ear across his rival's face.

"Heeeyyy...this is your first zit, isn't it?" he said gleefully. "'Cuz, I know I haven't gotten any yet, and you're older, so you've got a few months on me there..."

He leaned over for another look, and Sasuke twisted away.

"Piss off, brain-dead!"

"Ooh, are we touchy about our pimple?" Naruto gloated. Sasuke attempted to fix him with a Death Glare, but he was way too high on victory.

"It's just a stupid zit, Naruto," Sakura protested. "It's—"

"—the most gi-normous one I've ever seen!" Naruto crowed. "It's like this big throbbing bite mark or something! Man, think yours'll all be like that? I think you've got me beat on that one, Sasuke..."

"I said piss off!" Sasuke yelled.

"Well, maybe it's just 'cause it's on your neck or something. Hey, you know, you're supposed to pop 'em," Naruto said helpfully. "I bet Kakashi-sensei knows how to—"

"No!" Sasuke yelped, going quite pale, and bolted out the door, shoving past Kakashi on his way out.

Sakura and Naruto turned to each other to exchange an odd look.

"What got up his shorts?" Naruto asked.

Sakura cracked a grin. "Kakashi-sensei already tried that yesterday," she said, unable to keep a straight face. "I...don't think Sasuke-kun enjoyed it very much..."

"Right," Kakashi said, cracking his knuckles. "First practice mission of the day...Find the Narcissistic Teammate!"

"Narcissistic?" Naruto's face was the picture of confusion as Kakashi strode out the door. "What's that mean?"

Sakura shrugged. "Isn't it obvious? He didn't want to show his face in public with a thing like that on his shoulder..."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Why not?!" Sakura cried, horrified at his ignorance. "Nobody wants to be seen with a pimple like that!"

"I...still don't get it..." Naruto mused, scratching his chin.

Sakura huffed. "Oh, for heaven's sake, Naruto. Are we girls the only ones who understand these things?"

A mischievous look appeared on Naruto's face.

"Yep," he said cheerfully.

Naruto's screams of pain would ring out twice that night, the second time being after Sakura related the conversation to Sasuke...

But for the moment, doubled over in hysterical laughter at the blank look, followed swiftly by a look of comical shock and outrage, on Sakura's face...it was worth every bit of revenge the two of them could dish out.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry, I can't resist wondering aloud; how many of you did I have fooled?

With that aside, let it be known that I was not, originally, very fond of this ficlet. It was my entry for the AE 2004 fanfiction contest, and I thought it was rather lackluster... And then it won. So I guess there's some good in there after all. And I've since gotten rather fond of it, so I thought I would post it. I hope it was worth reading. -Tobu Ishi

_(Naruto and all related characters, symbols, etc., are property of the author and his chosen publishers. The story, for better or for worse, is my own. If I was making money from this, I wouldn't be diddling around with short stories; I would be trying to finish my unending FFIX novel in hopes of lucrative serial rights.)_

__

_Nee kikoemasu ka?_


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